Friday, October 30, 2015

Immediately after the defeat at
the General election in 2015, Ed Milliband resigned. What if he had decided to
stay on? We do not know.What we do
know is what happened in Scotland.Jim Murphy was elected Leader in October
2014.

Following his defeat and Labour’s rout in Scotland, Murphy said he would remain
Leader of Scottish Labour. First to call for Murphy to resign from being leader
was unseated MP, Ian Davidson, who said, "Morally, as the man who has led
us to the biggest ever disaster that Labour has suffered in Scotland, he can’t
continue." Then Pat Rafferty ofUnitecalled for Murphy's resignation, followed by Kevin
Lindsay ofASLEF.Then Neil Findlay MSP resigned from Murphy's shadow
cabinet, citing the election results, followed by MSPAlex Rowley.

The decision of whether he should continue was made by the Scottish Labour
Party Executive. Jim Murphy narrowly survived avote
of no confidenceby 17 votes
to 14. Three of the 17 votes in support of Murphy included that of Murphy
himself, that ofIan Murray MP, Shadow
Secretary of State for Scotland and Labour's only MP in Scotland, and that of a
LabourPeer. Murphy then announced on 16 May 2015 that he intended
to step down as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in June.

In 2010 Gordon Brown did not resign until he had failed to negotiate a
coalition deal with the Liberal Democrats. Gordon Brown announced on 10 May
2010 that he would stand down as Labour Leader 4 days after the election defeat
that left a hung parliament. Am I the only one who thinks a new acting
leader would have had a greater chance of successfully negotiating a Labour led
coalition? Gordon Brown could have gone to the National Executive and he would
almost certainly have been successful in continuing as Leader.

I believe that there is a moral obligation on anyone who leads a party to
electoral defeat to resign immediately. If you have been rejected by the
electorate then I believe you have lost the authority to lead the party. At a
more local level, the vast majority of the Labour Group in Swansea wanted to
remove the Leader of the Labour Group who was also Council leader. To remove
the Labour group leader, they needed to get a written request for a leadership
election signed by two third of the group.This was a lengthy process. Whilst the
removal of a Leader is not and should not be something undertaken lightly,
making it incredibly difficult also does not help.

The mechanism of electing the
leader of the Labour party at Westminster, Scotland and, I believe, Wales by
one member one vote is highly democratic. The party members choose the leader
of their party, as almost 60% of those that voted, voted to elect Jeremy
Corbyn.

Two things I learnt from this election. Firstly,
allowing MPs to be the gatekeepers of who gets onto the ballot paper came very
close to keeping Jeremy off the ballot paper. Someone who was overwhelmingly
elected by the members nearly did not make the ballot paper. Why cannot members
either self nominate or have a proposer and seconder? Whilst, with the first
system, all MPs could stand and under the second system in excess of 50, what
it would do is widen the debate and allow everyone a chance. My expectation is
that under that system a few more - perhaps up to six - would have stood.
Surely democracy means you should have the maximum possible choice?

Secondly,
members are enthused by the chance to hear a debate inside the party. When I spoke in favour of Jeremy
at the Swansea meeting I was amazed, as I know others were, at the number
attending and the enthusiasm generated. By the time Cardiff was reached, the
number in attendance was huge. A bus full came up from Swansea and there were
people from all over south Wales present. Party membership in Swansea East is
at its highest during the 40 years I have been involved. There are far more
members that in the run up to the 1997 general election.

I want to now turn to internal party democracy and
discuss West Glamorgan County Council, Swansea Council and the National
Assembly Wales. Two bodies I have been previously been elected to and one I am
currently a member of. In the days of West Glamorgan County Council and the
early days of Swansea Council or decisions were taken collectively by the
Labour Group. Whilst the Leader and committee chairs would have agreed the
report with senior officers and would report to the Labour group, the final
decision was the Labour group as a whole. They could and sometimes did reject
or amend the recommendation. Also, members collectively made recommendations at
sub committee that were then recommended either to full Council or to a
committee of all Councillors. When the cabinet system was introduced, decisions
became delegated to Cabinet members and then on in many cases to Council
officers.

Turning to the Assembly: this works on the system of a Leader directly elected
by the wider party membership but with the Assembly members acting as the
gatekeeper on who can stand. At the last election, won by Carwyn Jones, a
Labour group of 26 members and a candidate needed to be nominated by six
members meaning that the maximum number of candidates was four, three actually
stood.Do we need Assembly members to act as gatekeeper? Why cannot a system
that provides greater choice be brought in?Whilst we may not have a leadership
election for sometime, a system is needed to be in place that makes it easier
to get on the ballot paper in Wales, as much as it is needed at Westminster.The
First Minister has immense power, brought about by being the Leader of the
ruling group and directly elected by the membership.The Leader has absolute
control.They choose the Cabinet.They can appoint to the cabinet who
they want.They can remove any
cabinet member at any time via a reshuffle.

As you will have seen, there are other posts that are in the gift of the First
Minister such as chair of the European monitoring committee.How did I find out that Jenny Rathbone
had been removed? David Deans, theWestern
Mailjournalist, told me.
Whilst I am pleased Mick Antoniw has been appointed to the post, how did I find
out about the appointment? No, it was not theWestern
Mail...it was the BBC. I still have not been told about either event
officially. There is no reason for the First Minister to tell me. He is not
accountable to me as a member of the Labour Group. He is not accountable to the
Labour group collectively or individually. His only accountability is to the
Welsh Executive.We need to achieve two things: firstly, to make it easier for
candidates to get on the ballot paper. Secondly to have greater accountability.
This is a debate we need now when there is no leadership election imminent,
rather than wait until we have a vacancy.

This is the text of Mike's contribution to a roundtable discussion at the Welsh
Labour Grassroots AGM in Cardiff on 17 October 2015.